AASUA members: did you know that in the bylaws amendment ratification vote opening tomorrow you are being asked to give up rights as a member of the Association?
That’s what happened in the last round of voting for bylaw amendments in March, and that’s what you are being asked to do again in the voting that opens tomorrow (Monday, April 24th).
In the last round of voting, correspondence to members from AASUA Executive Director Brygeda Renke made no mention of the fact that members were being asked to approve the removal of a clause (4.4) that recognized members collectively as the Association’s “ultimate authority.”
The correspondence from Ms. Renke claims that the bylaw amendments “deal with ‘Removal from Office’ (now called ‘Trials and Charges’ Process’), and amend bylaws regarding committees.”
Did you vote for the amendments? (Only 647 out of 3,984 members voted.)
If so, did you understand that you were agreeing that members were no longer to be recognized collectively as the Association’s “ultimate authority”?
Now AASUA members are being asked to give up specific rights including the right to pass resolutions at general meetings:
The current provisions allow members to bring forward resolutions to be debated at general meetings with the support of other members. Not only do the proposed amendments get rid of that democratic provision, they ask members expressly to prohibit the passing of resolutions by them at general meetings.
The Association used to not hold general meetings at all despite the PSLA requirement.
In 2018, members ratified “new” bylaws for the Association. These bylaws resulted from a rigorous consultation process with members and an iterative drafting process. They involved various provisions that aimed to make the Association a more democratic, member-run organization that was not just compliant with the PSLA but set up for the new context of collective bargaining under the Alberta Labour Relations Code.
The clause about members as the “ultimate authority” used wording recommended by Bob Blair, arguably the most senior union-side labour lawyer in Alberta. In opinions for the Association, Mr. Blair noted that the “new” bylaws members were asked to ratify in 2018 sought “to enhance the democratic nature of AASUA and its ability to represent the diverse interests of its members” in the larger context of “the fundamentally democratic nature of collective bargaining.”
The proposed amendments are repugnant to the fundamentally democratic nature of collective bargaining and the democratic functioning of the AASUA.
Please vote “NO” in the vote opening tomorrow to prevent a further erosion of AASUA members’ democratic rights.
Arts Squared 